Okay.

Blogger seems to have eaten my last post. I am doing better. I hibernated all week, just getting the bare necessities done and napping a lot.

I feel better today. I went to the gym yesterday and it wore me out, but it was good to move and sweat. It helped my mood significantly. I also weighed myself and have lost 8 lbs on the scale! Wow! (That's over the course of about 8 weeks).

Terry and I will meet with a surgeon on Tuesday to discuss what he recommends. I'd obviously like to avoid surgery if at all possible. Eating low fat seems to help significantly.

We went to Blizzard Beach today. It was windy! The kids liked it until AJ's fingers, toes and lips began turning blue. We had sushi (CA rolls for me with yummy lump blue crab, pineapple and avocado!) and are going to Animal Kingdom tomorrow. We are buying Disney's new FL resident season pass, which will restrict us to the blackout dates of the season pass, and only allow us Mon-Fri. But for a SAHM, and a husband with a great deal of saved up time off, this works. ANd it costs less than 3 normal day tickets. Yay!

Rollercoaster of gallstones

I've gone from pure joy to sheer terror this week.

Joy over the baby. . . . and then I ate pizza. 2 slices of veggie pizza, to be exact. This caused terrible pain that lasted for at least 6 hours. I chalked it up to "gas" and moved on.

A week later, we made homemade pepperoni pizza. 8 hours of incredible pain followed. Definitely not gas. I saw my PCP, because the birthing center is an hour away and their OB wouldn't see me for 2 weeks. She scheduled me for an ultrasound.

I did get a peek at the baby as an incidental "perk" of getting to know the tech, who was 36 wks pregnant herself. It was neat to see the little "flicker" that is the baby.

As it turns out, my gallbladder is full of gallstones. I'm supposed to meet with a surgeon soon to review my options. They seem to be:

1. Surgery during the 2nd trimester to remove the gallbladder. Theoretically, this is safer than the first trimester and by the third trimester, the baby is too large to safely go in and remove the gallbladder. I hate to think of how the anesthesia and antibiotics may effect the baby. I mean, I'm trying so hard to have a natural, medication-free labor to protect the baby, and then to just roll in for surgery? Plus, this counts as abdominal surgery and how will that affect my chances of having a natural delivery vs. a c/section?

2. Suck it up? I've only had 2 attacks and I've eaten extremely low fat foods ever since. Nothing like fear of pain to motivate me in a way that Weight Watchers never could. The danger is that pregnancy exacerbates this, and I've heard that by the third trimester, it can get much worse. Besides causing pain, it can turn septic and endanger both me and the baby, causing jaundice, infection, and even meningitis.

3. Cleanse the gallbladder naturally with apples, olive oil and lemon juice. There may be more risk than is worth it, however.

4. Pray for a miracle.

Plus, I just contacted the birthing center again. The midwives will review the gallstones and my record and determine whether it is appropriate for me to continue in their care. Which sucks because I've wanted to deliver a baby there since I first stumbled upon their website over 3 years ago. I do have a wonderful OB, who did a great job with AJ, but the natural setting of The Birth Place really appealed to me. Hospitals tend to make me nervous, and that does not help a woman in labor. I'll have to fight to decline the IV and the electronic monitoring. . . . .anyhow.

I just can't stop freaking out right now. I feel depressed, worried, anxious. . . The Bible says, "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."

But at this point, I can't help but worry. I can't help but cry. I feel helpless. If it was just ME, it would not be such a big deal. But this can have such a big impact on this new little person.

Whew!

What a weekend!

My brother came over Saturday night after AJ went to bed. AJ woke me at 7 the next morning, climbing into my bed saying, "Mommy. Mommy? MOMMY! Someone is sleeping on our couch! Is it Uncle?"

"Yes, AJ."

"Oh, good! I'll share his blanket!"

Terry is nesting and cleaned out the garage. It looks GREAT. Kyle, my brother, helped a great deal, too. I can walk from one end to the other now.

Grace is working hard on a jazz duet with her best friend, Alexis, for competitions in 2010. This is in addition to the group company competitions. They are dancing to a cute version of "Zip Adee doo dah" which is quite fast-paced and challenging. It's GREAT for them! We've made arrangements for Alexis and her mom to come to our house after our Monday playdates so the girls can practice and then stay for dinner. Lasagna tonight!

Sunday afternoon, I drove Grace up to Sanford for her 2nd cousin Katie's 6th birthday party at a Paint your own Pottery place. It was so fun. Grace had a blast. I saw my cousins, aunt and uncle, and my cousin Chad and his wife Meridith brought their new baby, Lukas. Grace chose a jewelry box with a unicorn on top to paint. Ironically, my sister Kellyn has an identical box. I'm sure Grace painted differently than Kellyn, but I thought it was cool. I also painted--Garden Stakes! We'll see how they turn out!

And my cousins Chris, Chad and I all have identical video cameras. What are the odds? (And I'm not talking cheap, common-denominator-of-society cameras, either!!) We are family!

A new bed!

So we finally got a decent bed. . and King Size, at that!

The problem with having a high-end, awesome, vacation-feeling bed and combining it with a new body pillow and being pregnant is that I just want to stay in it!!!!!!

I'm so tired! And the bed is so comfy! I've been crawling into bed in the afternoon instead of going to the gym! Yikes!

I feel so lazy. . . and decadent. The problem is that I can't play the pregnancy card forever. Sooner or later, Terry is going to get tired of making pregnant concessions for me and I'm going to have to clean the house and make dinner.

I said "No!"

I've never said "No" to helping someone or somewhere before. I'm a people pleaser at heart. So last night was Grace's American Heritage Girls (AHG) luau. I was asked to help several days ago and agreed to escort a group of girls from one craft to the next. At the conclusion of the evening (8:35pm), I escorted Grace to the restroom and was waiting in the hallway for her. Our leader walked by and asked if I could help break down the party room. Instead of jumping eagerly up, I remained seated and said, "No, I'm sorry, I can't." I felt a little guilty and a little proud of myself.


The fact is that I was exhausted and had been going all day Saturday. I am dealing with this early-pregnancy fatigue and absolutely could not remain. And I figure that I did help with a large portion of the event. I swept the floor in between crafts, helped 12 girls do 3 crafts, and supervised dinner time. The parents who were coming to pick up their girls could certainly stay and put up some chairs, sweep, put food away or mop.

So I came home, worrying about getting Grace to bed because she was so bouncy and sugar-high, and halfway home I glanced in the rearview mirror and she was FAST asleep. So sleepy, in fact, that she didn't wake when we moved her from our van to her bed. She's still sleeping at 9:20 this morning as I type this.

Anyhow, I emailed our leader notifying her of my new condition and explaining that was why I could not help last night.

I suppose I should find a more graceful way to say "no", but I'm proud that I actually said it!!!

exercising

This marks week 2 of my new 5-days-a-week at the gym. I am mixing up the exercises and activities, trying to keep it fresh. My hamstrings began aching Wednesday night. I went to yoga on Thursday, and hurt worse after the class! Today I found some stretches to help.

Usually, a trip to the gym leaves me refreshed and energized. Today, I was tired and even tried to rest for a bit around 10:30am! (Don't tell the husband! He thinks I do that EVERY day!) Anyhow, I'm still exhausted and am attributing it to this new little one. Terry joked that I'm always tired, and this gives me a great excuse to lay down, and I agreed. But seriously, I'm yawning away and soooooo ready to go to bed. It's only 10 til 7pm right now. . . I better try to hold up for a little bit!

Guess what?

I'm pregnant!!!!!!

We are expecting #3 sometime in mid-June. We are over the moon. Grace said she feels like her dreams are coming true! She and AJ are both rooting for a sister, but Grace said that if it's a boy, as long as we name him Eric or Derek it would be okay. She's cracking me up. She also really likes the name Martha for a girl!!!!

I'm very tired. But still going to the gym every day and trying to keep my energy up.

Life is good!